Aperture 2 workflow tips & ideas please! (&Lightroom users!)

Now that I have the new Mac setup with all the extras & software, I am now busy finding all my photos that have been placed onto various laptops / computers etc. Anticipating somewhere between 8-10,000 photos to go through once I have found and copied them all!

Have been mainly shooting JPEG, but now want to start shooting RAW, mainly because I have the space and power to do it properly! We have 4x 1TB HD's which are currently setup up as:-

1. MAC & Vista setup (700GB OSX / 240GB Vista)
2. Drive for my files
3. Drive for Fiona's files
4. Backup (for Time Machine use?)

I know that there is no right or wrong way to manage and store my photos, but with so many to go through, and so many yet to be taken, getting it done well at the start is quite important! With so much storage space should I be copying all my photos to my drive, and then allowing Aperture to import them into its own library (therefore giving me 2 copies on 2 drives straight away!), or would you recommend just keeping them where they are?

We also have CS3 Web premium suite installed, and will be using Photoshop to edit some photos, and Dreamweaver to create websites, so I am guessing:-

1. Copy photos to my drive
2. Import into Aperture's own library
3. Develop RAW files
4. Export photos for Photoshop editing as TIFF's?
5. Edit in Photoshop, save edited files as (?) also save smaller copies for web use (JPEG)?

This looks like I could be spending quite sometime working out what's best for me, so I was mainly wondering what works best for you? Given all the storage space that we have, would you change your workflow to take advantage of it, or just be thankful for the extra backup options (we also have a 1TB NAS drive too!)

Sometimes it does feel like I have bitten off more than I can chew here, but I am gradually getting my head round it! Would appreciate knowing how you experienced users work though, as I am sure I can glean some tips from you!

Same questions apply if you use Lightroom as well, as I believe that both Aperture & Lightroom work in very similar ways?

Thanks in advance for all advice!

Danny

That is a might ammount of space. I have somewhere in the region of 2000 RAW files and only two 100GB laptop drives in my machine. Space is tight but I find the room for:

Main photos always imported into Lightroom and set in a specific library folder with date hirarchy.

Photos backed up on to the second HDD and on to the external drive often.

Best images are exported as full size 80% JPEG files and as 600px web 80% JPEGs.

Anything that needs to be edited will be exported as 8bit AdobeRGB PSD. I'd use 16bit and ProPhotoRGB but I only have photoshop elements . I may be able to get my hands on CS2 soon though. I know someone who may not want their copy.

Workflow is not a problem once the library is set up you can get through a lot quickly. I have reprocessed all my images in weekend when I started using LR2 Beta.

Just set up as you feel best working. You can't really do much else.

set aperture up so it doesn't render previews on import.....you'll be in for a shock, at how long that process ties up your system. Render previews only on shots when you need previews.
set aperture up to rename your files using exif data (it'll sort them better, and prevent duplicates).

Must admit, never even noticed the previews taking any time, doesn't seem to slow anything down. Maybe one of the advantages of having 8 cores?

I use lightroom, this is my usual methodology:

Import folder containing the days images from camera to 'pending' folder on my macbook. When this is done I then import the folder to lightroom, using 'autotone'.

I then peruse the images, marking any to delete and any really good ones. Delete crap images. Review all images again, revise ratings, deleting crap until I'm happy with what's left.

I then sometimes select them all and change to mono, review again, weed some more.

After this I put the days folder into the months folder. After a few days i come back and review again, try different settings with some pics.

I'm always tweaking and tinkering, I save several versions of the same image and make lots of 'virtual' copies.

Thsi is all backed up regularly to an external hard disk and also onto DVD.